Reviewed by GREG KING Director: Trevor Nunn Stars: Judi Dench, Sophie Cookson, Ben Miles, Stephen Campbell Moore, Tereza Srbova, Tom Hughes, Kevin Fuller, Ciaran Owens. We first meet octogenarian widow Joan Stanley (played by Judi Dench) when MI5 agents arrest her in her own home and charge her with treason. An elderly retired librarian she is the last person one would suspect of being a spy. As she is interrogated and tries to defend her choice, Joan’s story unfolds in a series of lengthy flashback sequences. In 1938 Joan (played by Sophie Cookson, from the …
ALL IS TRUE
Reviewed by GREG KING Director: Kenneth Branagh Stars: Kenneth Branagh, Judi Dench, Ian McKellen, Lydia Wilson, Kathryn Wilder, Jack Colgrave Hirst, Phil Dunster. Shakespeare in retirement? In 1613 William Shakespeare (played here by Kenneth Branagh) was the most famous writer in England. But then his beloved Globe Theatre burned to the ground during a performance of his final play Henry VIII after a prop misfired. Shakespeare retired following that disaster and returned home to Stratford-upon-Avon. There he pottered around the house and tried his hand at …
TULIP FEVER
Reviewed by GREG KING Director: Justin Chadwick Stars: Alicia Vikander, Christoph Waltz, Dane DeHaan, Holliday Grainger, Jack O'Connell, Judi Dench, Cara Delevingne, Tom Hollander, Kevin McKidd, Matthew Morrison, Zach Galifianakis, Douglas Hodge, David Harewood. This melodramatic bodice ripper period romantic drama is set in Amsterdam in 1634. Tulips were very much prized and a source of great wealth in the market place. Playing out against this backdrop of a strong economic bubble and flourishing commodities market is a more formulaic story of romance, sex, …
MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS
Reviewed by GREG KING Director: Kenneth Branagh Stars: Kenneth Branagh, Michelle Pfeiffer, Johnny Depp, Willem Dafoe, Daisy Ridley, Josh Gad, Judi Dench, Olivia Colman, Penelope Cruz, Leslie Odom jr, Lucy Boynton, Sergei Polunin, Tom Bateman, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo. Strangers On A Train? Agatha Christie is the world's best-selling author, having sold some 2 billion copies of her crime and mystery novels. She has written 66 novels, 33 of which feature her famous creation, the arrogant, fastidious and brilliant Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot. Many of her books …
MISS PEREGRINE’S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN
Reviewed by GREG KING Director: Tim Burton Stars: Eva Green, Asa Butterfield, Ella Purcell, Samuel L Jackson, Chris O'Dowd, Judi Dench, Rupert Everett, Milo Parker, Terence Stamp, Kim Dickens, Allison Janney, Finlay MacMillan, Lauren McCrostie. Harry Potter meets X-Men on Groundhog Day? For years Jake Portman (Asa Butterfield, from Hugo, etc) has heard fantastic stories from his grandfather Abe (Terence Stamp) about the time he spent in a fantastic orphanage in the years before WWII. However, Jake's parents have done their best to dismiss his stories as fanciful …
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THE SECOND BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL
Reviewed by GREG KING Director: John Madden Stars: Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Dev Patel, Bill Nighy, Richard Gere, Ronald Pickup, Penelope Wilton, Celia Imrie, Tamsin Greig, Tena Desae, Lillet Dubey, David Strathairn, Diana Hardcastle, Shazad Latif. Is this the most ironically apt film title of the year? The original and life affirming Best Exotic Marigold Hotel was one of the surprise hits of 2012, so it's not surprising that the producers have had a second bite at the cherry with this obligatory sequel. But the film suffers from the usual fate of most …
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MY WEEK WITH MARILYN
Reviewed by GREG KING Director: Simon Curtis Stars: Michelle Williams, Eddie Redmayne, Kenneth Branagh, Judi Dench, Julia Ormond, Dougray Scott. Hollywood created a superstar, but fame was the steep price Marilyn Monroe had to pay for her image. There are lots of apocryphal stories concerning the behaviour of legendary film star Marilyn Monroe, from her messy personal life to her erratic behaviour on set. The two most famous examples of her diva-like behaviour on set concern her movies The Prince And The Showgirl (1957) and the classic comedy Some Like It …
J EDGAR
Reviewed by GREG KING Director: Clint Eastwood Stars: Leonardo Di Caprio, Armie Hammer, Judi Dench, Naomi Watts, Ken Howard, Jeffrey Donovan. For nearly fifty years, J Edgar Hoover was the most powerful man in American law enforcement. Not only did he establish the FBI and its well respected forensics laboratories and impressive data bases, but he was also a power hungry, paranoid and ambitious man who gathered secret files on the sex lives of everyone prominent in public life. For Hoover, secrets and information represented power, and he used those files to …